Jerome Bruner

BRIEF HISTORY Jerome Bruner was born in New York City on October 1, 1915. He attended and received his B.A. from Duke University in 1937 and his Ph.D from Harvard University in 1941. As an American psychologist, he has contributed greatly to cognitive psychology and the cognitive learning theory in educational psychology, as well as to history and the general philosophy of education. He was on the faculty in the Department of Psychology at Harvard University from 1952 – 1972. He published his book “The Process of Education” in 1960. This book influenced many young researchers and led to a great deal of experimentation and a wide range of educational programs. In the early 70’s, he left Harvard University to become a tutor at the University of Oxford up until 1979, after which he returned to Harvard University. Later he joined the New York University of Law, where he became a Senior Researcher (at the age of 93).

THEORY Jerome Bruner is one of the founding fathers of Constructivist Theory. Constructivism is an extensive theoretical framework with several perspectives, and Bruner's is only one. Bruner's hypothetical framework is based on the theme that learners create new ideas or concepts based upon existing knowledge. Learning is an active process. Aspects of the process include selection and transformation of information, decision making, generating hypotheses, and making meaning from information and experiences.
Jerome Bruner believes that teachers need:
• To understand the relationship between motivation and learning;
• To understand how structure relates to the whole;
• To learn to form “global concepts”;
• To learn how to build “coherent patterns” of learning;
• To understand that facts without meaning are not learned; and
• To believe that any subject can be taught to any child. (“Any subject can be taught effectively in some intellectually honest form to any child at any stage of development” (Bruner, 1960, p. 33).

Four Key themes